[ascoredhat]

Hello good folks,

You've helped me before as I've been slowly, but surely, trying to get my computer up and going, so I hope you can help at my latest brick wall.

I bought a new motherboard and CPU (ECS 671T-M & Celeron 430). This is just an older computer that died which I wanted to go the cheap route of getting it fixed (the MB and/or CPU had died before) to use as an "extra" computer until I buy a new one. It uses Windows XP.

Anyway, this is all new territory for me so feel free to talk as if I were a 5 year old in your answers (computer-wise you won't be too far off lol).

Where I've gotten so far:
The motherboard/CPU etc is all put together with all the various power cords and cables plugged in. On the old MB it had a second port for Secondary IDE cable. The new one only has one, so I had to put the Hard Drive and DVD-RW on the same cable. The HD is set up as master and the DVD-RW drive as slave, with the HD at the end of the cable and the DVD-RW in the middle of it.

Anyway, it was time to cross my fingers and fire it up for the first time and all the various fans spinning and buzzes and clicks and whirrs of getting up to speed went into effect. It told me to press F1 to get into Setup, which I did, and I did the CMOS to update time and date and put the DVD Rom drive as 1st boot up device and HD as 2nd and floppy drive as 3rd. So far it seems like I'm doing OK. Then it saves and exits and restarts and this message comes up:

"We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this.

If your computer stopped responding, restarted unexpectedly, or was automatically shut down to protect your files and folders, choose Last Known Good Configuration to revert to the most recent settings that worked.

If a previous startup attempt was interrupted due to a power failure or because the Power or Reset button was pressed, or if you aren't sure what caused the problem, choose Start Windows
Normally.

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt

Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked) Start Windows Normally

Use the up and down arrow keys to move the highlight to your choice.

Seconds until Windows starts: 30"

Well, I've tried it with the Last Known Good Config, the Safe Mode, the Start Windows Normally, the Command Prompt, blah blah. The same message keeps coming back. I put the CD that came with the MB into the DVD Rom drive figuring maybe it would know what to do, but still the same message comes up.

Is there something I missed?

Any help from the intelligent folks on this site would be greatly appreciated by this moron.

Thanks!!!

Dave

 

[ebackhus]

If you didn't prep the system before installing the new board and CPU you will likely have to reinstall your operating system.

 

[ascoredhat]

>>If you didn't prep the system before installing the new board and CPU you will likely have to reinstall your operating system.<<

So, would this mean I would put in the Windows XP disc and boot it up and take it from there?

And, if so, will that erase all the other data on the Hard Drive? I know a reformat would do that, but not sure if reinstalling the Windows XP will cause that to happen, as well.
Also, I know Microsoft is anal about the one user per disc kind of thing. Will the XP disc realize that I'm not pulling a fast one on Bill Gates? lol

 

[linderman]

the changing of the motherboard does that :laugh:

no biggie / put down the hammer :3-smash: >>>>> its too early in the game for that :laugh:



all you need to do is execute a win xp repair install and all will be fine >>>> you wont lose any data or programs

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm#RI

 

[linderman]

dont do a "re-install" that will wipe all data / you want a "repair" install

 

[ascoredhat]

Thanks, Linderman.
The computer seems to be stuck, though.

Here's what I did so far:
"Configure your computer to start from the CD-ROM drive. Then insert your Windows XP Setup CD, and restart your computer.

1. When the Press any key to boot from CD message is displayed on your screen, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD.

2. Press ENTER when you see the message To setup Windows XP now, and then press ENTER displayed on the Welcome to Setup screen.

3. Do not choose the option to press R to use the Recovery Console. (I didn't)

4. In the Windows XP Licensing Agreement, press F8 to agree to the license agreement.

5. Make sure that your current installation of Windows XP is selected in the box, and then press R to repair Windows XP.

6. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete Setup. "

Everything seemed to be moving right along, scanning files, copying files, blah blah.

Right now it is in the "Installing Windows" section of the list. It started at "Setup will complete approximately: 39 minutes", and got down to 33 minutes before it froze. At it's been frozen at 33 minutes for quite some time now.

Is there a way to unfreeze it? Do I need to just reboot and start all over again?

 

[Deleted090308]

Try again with USB devices disconnected and onboard LAN disabled.

 

[ascoredhat]

Hi

I rebooted and pressed Del to get into the CMOS and disabled the onboard LAN. There isn't any USB devices hooked up right now (it's pretty bare bone until I get it working... just the HD and DVD Rom drive).

But even after restarting with the LAN disabled, it still gets stuck at the same place.

What happens is it starts at 39 minutes estimated setup time. It drops to 35 minutes as it says "Installing Devices" and below that a green bar fills up and when it's done and the bar disappears it's at 33 minutes, and then it freezes.

 

[Deleted090308]

Are you using the onboard graphics? If not - make sure it's disabled.
Disable onboard audio and USB support in BIOS.

 

[ascoredhat]

Hi eneles,

I did go to the CMOS again and disabled the onboard audio and the two things that mentioned USB. I'm using the onboard video, but I do have a video card I could put in and use instead if you think that might help.

Anyway, the same problem persists. It just can't get past the point after it says it's installing devices.

 

[Deleted090308]

If you have a card reader - remove it.

Also:
You could perform a parallel XP installation.

 

[linderman]

sounds like a bad or maybeeeeee corrupt hard drive to me ?????



go to your hard drive manufacturers website / download & support / download their hard drive diagnostic software utility (free) run the DOS version, its bootable and runs withouth windows

if the drive is good ?????


go to memtest86.com and download the bootable memory tester, run memtest for atleast two hours

post back with your results

 

[ascoredhat]

Okay, I got lucky about the Hard Drive. It's fine. And apparently even though it's with XP it must be set up at FAT32 already because I hooked it up as a slave in my Win98 system and it recognized it and allowed me to move all my files from that drive to the Win98 drive. So it's all backed up and available to be wiped out and redone.

Which brings me to my next question... how should I go about that? We learned that the "repair" won't work, so do I use the "recovery" option (the other one given besides "repair") instead? Will that, in essence, do a full install?

Here's where I'm worried about doing a format before a new install... people are telling me that the XP disc has an anti-piracy deal where it won't allow it to be put on a "second" computer. Even though this is really just the same computer but with new parts, Microsoft won't see it that way. In fact, some people are saying that Microsoft themselves feel that when someone puts in a new MB/CPU/RAM it isn't the "same" system anymore and, therefore, Mr. Gates wants us to run out and buy a whole new XP disc.

Is there a way around that, or am I going to have to buy a new XP disc? Also, what if my hard drive crashed two weeks after I installed XP on it? Does Microsoft expect me to run out and buy a new XP disc for that, too?

 

[linderman]

I personally would wipe the drive completely with darik's boot & nuke (free)
http://dban.sourceforge.net/


then do a clean install / booting from the winodws xp CD


XP wont give you any trouble, vista is much more sensitive to hardware changes than is XP

keep us posted ?????


have you verified your memory yet with memtest86.com ?????


I would also do that prior to the wipe and fresh install / run the memory tester (bootable) for at least two hours

 

[ascoredhat]

Thanks, Linderman

Here's hoping the XP reinstalls without a hitch. I'll let you know what happens (couldn't do it this morning before heading off to work, so that'll be my fun for this evening.)

>>have you verified your memory yet with memtest86.com ?????
I would also do that prior to the wipe and fresh install / run the memory tester (bootable) for at least two hours<<

Actually, no I haven't done that yet. I'll make that part of the festivities this evening. I certainly hope the RAM is fine, being I just bought it a couple weeks ago to be used with this whole upgrade. You mentioned it's bootable, so I would imagine I would go to the website you mentioned and download the program onto a floppy using my Win98 computer (the laptop doesn't have a floppy drive) to boot on the computer being upgraded, as I can't think of any other way the memory on it could be tested since that computer is not up and running yet.

I appreciate all the great advice.

 

[linderman]

they also have a bootable cd-rom ISO that you can burn to a blank cd-rom / then boot from the cd-rom drive

doesnt need an OS to do that

 

[ascoredhat]

Well, here's the latest glitch... everytime I turn on the computer it automatically goes straight to the "restarting windows setup..." screen. Then it goes to where I left off before when I was trying to repair instead of format/install.

No matter what I do I can't get it to start at the very beginning where it gives me the choices, asks me to press F8 to accept terms and all that stuff. From there I could do the ESC to install intead of R for repair. I even took the XP disc out, but that doesn't get it to start at the beginning.

I tried to get the special boot and nuke disc mentioned above, but after downloading it to my computer it said my system wasn't recognized where it could put it on a floppy or CD (it's the old Win98 computer is probably why).

Any other way to get Mr. Computer to let me do a fresh install?

 

[lardbellyed]

i just bought the same motherboard with a intel duo core processor and i am having the exact problems as you.I can reach a certain point in the install process then a get a error message.at first i thought it was my install disk but no ,i had no problem with a winxp install on my older computer and hard drive that i was using on the new motherboard.just got back up and running on my old computer.will check with ecs support to see if they know what the problem is.